


The Observatory

by diycosmology



Category: Bionicle - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 08:27:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28953423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/diycosmology/pseuds/diycosmology
Summary: Takanuva and Hahli get caught in a storm far from home, but thankfully the observatory's always open.
Kudos: 8





	The Observatory

The rain was coming down in torrents, the plants that were a few minutes ago happy to be refueled were now being completely flattened by the force.

“Okay, maybe we lost track of time back there,” Takanuva said, illuminating the ends of his staves of light to try and guide the way through the cloudy darkness.

Hahli focused her water manipulation to stop the rain from falling on her and her friend, redirecting it around her and her friend as they moved, though it was so frequent and violent that she couldn’t manage to keep them completely dry. “This is bad. We've got to find shelter or e—“

Lightning flashed, startling Hahli out of finishing her sentence. Takanuva took the brief opportunity to look ahead, and what he saw made him grab Hahli by the wrist, shining a path of his own light all the way to what he had spotted in the flash—the recently completed Tajun Village Observatory, nestled in the flat peak of the mountain they were crossing on their way back to the city of New Atero. 

Now filled with determination, they ran full speed across the flatter parts of the mountain, then carefully scaled its steeper segments for some time until they reached the building and invited themselves inside. In the lobby, Hahli willed all the rain that had fallen on them out underneath the door. The lightstones illuminating the place were dim, giving the impression that no one was around.

“How long is it supposed to last?” Takanuva asked, setting his staves and bag against the wall.

“All night, they said.”

“Well, I’m gonna get some sleep, then.”

“Not yet.” Hahli waved her hand, commandeering a lightstone from the wall and heading upstairs. “I’m going to see if someone’s here.”

“Oh, good plan,” Takanuva said, grabbing a staff and following her. “I didn't see lights on upstairs, though,”

Carefully stepping upwards, Hahli replied. “It’s an observatory, silly. Not everyone works in the light.”

The second story was as dark and quiet as could be. In the past, the planet had bright nights thanks to its two moons, but now that they had both been reintegrated into the planet every night was dark. 

Hahli broke the silence. “Hello?”

The two toa stood still, awaiting a reply.

From across the room, they heard footsteps and grumbling heading towards them. whoever’s eyes it was needing adjusting, causing them to need to get right up to the intruders to identify them. “In the middle of a storm, really? And Before we’ve built the staircase, too. Do you know how dangerous that is? I swear I have had it up to here with you young Agori and your stupid pr—”

The observatory’s keeper walked into the purview of Hahlis lightstone and jumped back in horror when she realized who it was she was actually speaking to. “—Oh! Toa Hahli! Toa Takanuva! My sincerest apologies, I thought you were someone else.”

“I thought you'd be here, Nixie,” Hahli smiled, bowing slightly to her old neighbor. “I hope you can forgive us for letting ourselves in.”

“...I suppose I can. What brings you here?”

“Things have been quiet lately, so we offered to help Nireta with mapping what’s westward of New Atero, since two Toa can cover a lot more ground than one Matoran.”

Nixie cocked her head. “...Interesting. The Toa of Light is not who comes to mind when I think ‘astute navigator’”.

“Unfortunately, I have to agree.” Hahli shrugged, looking to her brother for forgiveness. “The Turaga had warned us that this storm was coming, but we obviously didn’t make it back in time.”

“So, if you don’t mind, wed like to stay here until it passes,” Takanuva said.

“Of course.” Nixie nodded, “this facility is closed to none, least of all Toa.”

“Perfect! Well just go set up camp downstairs and be out from under your mask…” Takanuva said, turning to leave.

“Oh, no, you mustn’t, it might flood.” Nixie said. “You two are to sleep up here.”

“You are a forward-thinker, aren’t you? I’ll go get my things, then…”

Being the only piece of civilization for miles, the observatory was well stocked for emergencies such as this. Nixie had fetched bedrolls from the supply closet and set them up on the opposite side of the room to the telescope she had been peering through. The crackling of thunder was calming, rather than frightening, when it was outside, making it easy for the toa to be True to their word and fast asleep, and not bothering her—on purpose, at least.

Nixie tried for as long as she could to ignore it, understanding it was a natural phenomenon, but eventually, she had to concede that it made her stargazing impossible. She finished her notes and switched gears, sliding the telescope’s lens cover into place and booting up her work computer, the screen taking up a massive part of one of the rooms longer walls. Still not satisfactorily familiar with operating Metru Nui era tech, she grumbled to herself, trying to remember the commands to get it where she wanted.

Takanuva stirred, the muted yet undeniably frustrated exclamations awakening him. “Nixie? Is it morning?”

“It’s the middle of the night.” She answered. “You haven’t been here long.”

“Oh.” Takanuva rolled over, staring at the ceiling and its carefully executed mural of the placement of objects in the night sky. “You’re not using the telescope anymore?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Hoping it wouldn’t sound rude, Nixie hesitated before stating her reason. “You glow.”

Once pointed out to him, Takanuva could clearly see that he had light up the entire room, which was a feat in itself given the size of it. Its decor was clear to him now: star maps with handwritten annotations affixed to them lined most of the walls, but their sequence was occasionally interrupted by carefully excavated burnt-out sections of the Great Spirit Robot’s ceiling where toa stars had once burned, now isolated and displayed as works of art. “Oh. Sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

“How could you see anything in this weather, anyway?”

“I was monitoring the red star, nothing else. It’s very close and very bright, even in storms. But your light pollution obscures it.” 

“What are you doing now?”

Nixie sighed, Takanuva’s questions were as ceaseless as the rain outside. “You’re awake for good now, aren’t you? If you are, I’ll show you.” She said, finally managing to bring up the project she wanted. 

Takanuva got up, careful to not disturb Hahli. “Now, this is a work in progress so it’s a bit messy, but you’re also the first person to see this, so consider that a trade-off…”

Nixie clumsily punched in the controls, bringing a tirade of files onto the screen, the images before him looking unlike any of the many lands hed seen before. Their accompanying text would have been completely arcane to him if not for the time he’d spent studying the telescope and its prophecies on Mata Nui, but even then, he welcomed Nixie’s explanations.

“These are but fragments of the Great Spirit Robot’s research, bits and pieces of worlds far away. I am sure he would mourn how much was lost, but to me, this is unimaginably rich…” Nixie brought up her favorite of the images, one of the first Mata Nui had taken, of the moons Aqua and Bota Magna nearly converging in their planet's night sky. “Like this one, look at the shape of them. The blue one is the sea in which our island home would be formed thousands of years after this was taken. I always had my suspicions that the place we lived was spherical.”

Takanuva remained silent, eyes wide.

Nixie swapped the image for another of some other celestial body viewed from afar, continuing to move on as she mentioned them. “This planet, the Great Spirit wrote, is made of ice yet constantly aflame. It makes me wonder if what is said about beings of Ice and Fire is true. This one is made entirely of crystal—I would think Vakama would like to claim it for his story stone collection, don't you?”

Takanuva turned his head to her. “We’ve got to go there. We’ve got to at least get him a shard from it.”

At first, Takanuva thought Nixie might agree with her. Then she burst out laughing. “That is not an impossible dream, Toa, but certainly a distant one...very distant.”

“You must be too busy with your work to keep up with the chronicles…” Takanuva reasoned, not used to one who hadn’t heard of his exploits despite being from the same place as him. “I’ve seen other worlds, Nixie, and I intend to go back to them, once Nuparu figures out a device that will let me. In one, alternate versions of our dear Nuju and Nuparu had already set in motion the means to journey the stars. If I can find my way back to them, we can ask for their assistance...and if I can't find them, I can visit as many as it takes until we find a world where we've continued the Great Spirits work…”

Nixie knew Takanuva was no liar and not one of the more dramatic storytellers from the Matoran universe, but still she found it hard to take his proposition seriously. “Even if that is so, it won’t be as easy as just prancing into a portal and asking for help.”

“Oh, yes, I’ve been made well aware of that.” Takanuva nodded, recalling many lectures from his fellow Toa and Turaga. “I—I haven't even told her about this, but that’s why I went mapmaking with Hahli. The Turaga used to talk about how much better she was at navigating the island. Never late to a Kohlii game, unlike me. I wanted to watch and learn how to get around the right way.” He turned away, scratching the back of his neck. “So much for that, this time, at least…”

“You've never been very patient, but you can learn, and the stars have never moved fast for me, so I am more than content to wait for eons for this plan of yours to unfold.” Nixie grinned. “Here, I’ve barely shown you all that I have.”

They kept admiring distant lands until daylight came. They were so engrossed in their virtual tour of the universe that they never noticed the weather had mellowed out long before sunrise. Hahli awoke around that time, the sight of the two of them huddled under the screen both confusing and charming.

“Hahli!” Takanuva said when he turned at the sound of rustling. “Nixie and I are going to go to outer space!”

“Some day.” Nixie added.

Hahli felt bewildered by the news but knew after a few seconds of thought it was only logical that Takanuva, with his insatiable appetite for exploration, and Nixie, with her head perpetually in the clouds, would come up with such a grand scheme. She sat up and looked out the window into the bright weather with a clear view of Tajun in the distance, and just barely visible on the horizon, New Atero. “That’s great news! but... let’s see if we can make it back there first.”


End file.
